A New Link Between Diabetes In Children And Mental Health.

Adam Greene

By Adam Greene

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There are a litany of issues that come with being a child with Type 1 diabetes, most of which parents take great care to monitor. However, more and more issues related to childhood diabetes are being discovered, most recently the link between Type 1 diabetes and mental health complications. About a quarter of a million children are affected by Type 1 in the US, which makes this new study all the more sobering. Around 8% of kids with diabetes were diagnosed with a mental disorder, and were more likely to need severe treatment, and more likely to attempt suicide.

The information contained in the study, while frightening, also provides a ray of hope, and educating parents is always the best defense against future complications. It also highlights how important continued research into diabetes really is. Let’s keep supporting research, and keep providing hope for future generations.

★ Help Continue Vital Research Into Diabetes ★

Many diabetics have struggled to control their diabetes through healthy living and with the assistance of insulin. Now, the new University of Michigan Brehm Center for Diabetes Research, a leading diabetes research laboratory, is seeking a cure for all forms of diabetes: type 1, type 2, gestational, and pre-diabetes.

Researchers at this laboratory have focused their efforts on two main components of understanding and stopping diabetes. First, they aim to prevent the loss of insulin-secreting cells by understanding how the cells function, survive, and produce in response to metabolic demand. By slowing or stopping the loss of these cells, solutions based on this research might prove able to stop the development of diabetes. Second, they are researching how to regenerate new insulin cells from other types of cells. Effective cell replacement therapies could provide relief to patients suffering from advanced forms of diabetes.

Adam Greene may reside in West Michigan, but the majority of his time is spent providing a comfortable lap for his many animals. When not covered in cats, he is probably writing and drinking ridiculous amounts of coffee.